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MOGADISHU, Somalia (KABC) -- The Somali pirates who are holding a Southern California man hostage released a statement Friday night saying they have moved the man around four times in fear of a Navy SEALs attack. This comes after the dramatic rescue of two other hostages this week, possibly putting his life at risk. Michael Scott Moore, an author and journalist from Manhattan Beach, had been working from Berlin, Germany, and had traveled to Somalia before to conduct research. But this time, he was captured. There are conflicting reports from Somalia about whether the pirates plan to hold him ransom...

NOTE The following text is a quote: www.number10.gov.uk/news/prime-minister-statement-on-alan-mcmenemy/ Prime Minister's statement on Alan McMenemy Friday 20 January 2012 Prime Minister David Cameron confirmed the British Embassy in Baghdad have received the body of hostage Alan McMenemy. The Prime Minister said: “It is with great sadness that I can confirm that the British Embassy in Baghdad received a body today that has been identified as Alan McMenemy, who was kidnapped in Baghdad in 2007, along with four other men. The bodies of Jason Swindlehurst, Jason Creswell and Alec MacLachlan were returned in 2009. Peter Moore was the only hostage released alive...

An Iranian court has convicted an American man of working for the CIA and sentenced him to death, state radio reported Monday, in a case adding to the accelerating tension between the United States and Iran. Iran charges that as a former U.S. Marine, Amir Mirzaei Hekmati, received special training and served at U.S. military bases in Iraq and Afghanistan before heading to Iran for his alleged intelligence mission. The radio report did not say when the verdict was issued. The 28-year-old former military translator was born in Arizona and graduated from high school in Michigan. His family is of...

Long after he vanished in Iran, retired FBI agent Robert Levinson reappeared in a video and a series of photographs sent to his family over the past year, transforming a mysterious disappearance into a hostage standoff with an unknown kidnapper, The Associated Press has learned.

Warren Weinstein, pictured above, is a 70-year-old Jewish American and former USAID worker who was kidnapped from his bed late August in Pakistan. Now, a newly released audio message from al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri claims responsibility for Weinstein’s disappearance and says the militant Islamist group is holding the man hostage. This supports a U.S. official’s claim that ”it’s entirely possible that al Qaeda or one of its militant allies may be holding Mr. Weinstein.” In the 30-minute long statement, which is reportedly circulating on jihadi-websites, al-Zawahiri states: “I tell the captive soldiers of al Qaeda and the Taliban and...

SNIPPET: "From a compound in Lahore, Pakistan to a home in the quiet Brad Drive neighborhood in Rockville, there's growing concern about the fate of kidnapped American contractor Warren Weinstein. "It's just a Byzantine world, it's not straight up", says Chis Meyers, a neighbor and a widely travelled retired marine. "There's people who are going to pick out Americans", he adds. Authorities say Weinstein, 70, an industrial development expert, employed by Arlington-based J.E. Austin associates was kidnapped around 3:45 Saturday morning Pakistani time. Police say eight to ten men approached Weinstein's Lahore house on a ploy. "They had come up...

SNIPPET: "A group of 40 Islamic students besieged a university near the capital city in Tunisia and held students and teachers hostage."

Iran: America's OptionsWe have been indulging in wishful thinking for a decade. It's time to stop. In 2007, America’s intelligence agencies delivered a National Intelligence Estimate to President Bush declaring: “We judge with high confidence that in fall 2003, Tehran halted its nuclear weapons program.� As the latest report from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) makes clear, Iran did indeed end its “structured� nuclear-weapons program. Kudos to the intel agencies for spotting this change. Where they did much less well was in spotting that the “structured� nuclear-weapons program was transitioned into an “unstructured� nuclear-weapons program.One might wonder what the...

An organization with close ties to government employee unions is trumpeting pronouncements by a university “labor studies” department (that’s also closely aligned with unions), claiming the unionization of government employees has “no link” with state “deficits.” Michigan’s largely unionized state, local and school employees, however, are granted fringe benefits exceeding what they would get in the private sector by $5.7 billion every year. The figure may start to fall now that Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder has signed legislation capping local government and public school employee health insurance benefits at $15,000, which represents a haircut for many, but is still 46...

The GOP needs to give the Dems a taste of their own medicine. Remember when Senate and House Dems said that Tea Party Republicans were supposedly holding America hostage over raising the debt ceiling? Well, well... Obama said that he wants his jobs bill back and fast. America desperately needs this, he said. So why then is Reid (according to a Oct. 4th Washington Times article) holding up the jobs bill? A GOP leader in the Senate wants a vote on it now, but around 10-12 Senate Dems (those up for re-election in 2012) don't want to go anywhere near...

On the floor of the Senate, calling them hostage takers. Shameless twit this one; Barbara Boxer (Democrate, California)

ABC has word that the deal is still tentative, but here is the outline: Debt ceiling increase of up to $2.8 trillion Spending cuts of roughly $1 trillion Instead of Harry Reid’s bogus war savings, a commission will be appointed to recommend cuts totaling $1.8 trillion, thereby equaling the amount of the debt ceiling increase. That’s certainly an improvement over the Reid plan if the other cuts actually happen. I have my doubts whether the Democrats will follow through or simply use what they’ve already agreed to to demagogue the issue some more. So the bottom line is that both...

Dual Highway remains closed as police and Special Response Team members keep watch on a house at 1606 Dual Highway after a report that shots may have been fired. Washington County Sheriff Douglas Mullendore, who was at the police command post set up at the Church of God on Dual Highway, said police are negotiating with a man inside the house. He said police believe there might also be a woman in the house. Get the information you need fast. Sign up for our Breaking News alerts today. Police did not know whether anyone inside the house had been harmed,...

North may kidnap to get defectors back: Source April 28, 2011 The North Korean military has been given orders to hijack South Korean fishing boats near the Northern Limit Line (NLL), a South Korean government official told the JoongAng Ilbo on Tuesday. “I believe that the North Koreans wish to take our citizens hostage and return them in exchange for the four North Koreans, among the 31 who drifted across the maritime border this past February, who defected,” said the government source. “The South Korean government and the military shared this tip last week. We have our guard up as...

American detained in North Korea By Elise Labott, CNN Senior State Department Producer April 12, 2011 6:34 p.m. EDT (CNN) -- An American man has been detained in North Korea, two State Department officials told CNN. Diplomatic sources speaking on condition of not being identified said the man is a Korean-American businessman. One of the sources said the businessman had a visa to enter North Korea. The State Department is working with the Swedish Embassy in the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, the officials said. The United States is urging North Korean authorities, through the Swedes, to release the man on...

The Times of London reports in tomorrow's edition that the Italians have agreed to stop paying ransoms to kidnapers in Iraq, a policy change that brings Rome into line with other Western nations. In further developments, an Italian parliamentarian indicated that despite earlier assertions that the Americans had been alerted to Sgrena's release and Calipari's itinerary, the Italians never got clearance for their vehicle: [THE Italian prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, has promised President George W Bush that he will not pay more ransoms to free hostages in Iraq. The Italian government has denied newspaper reports that $6m (£3.1m) was paid...

THURSDAY - JANUARY 13, 2011 - NAPA, CA - The "moose" on the eucalyptus tree on Dry Creek Road has gotten a new coat of paint honoring the San Francisco Giants and Oregon State University. Someone is unhappy with the new colors and is holding a moose toy for "ransom" until the tree is repainted. . . A small stuffed moose is being held hostage somewhere in the Bay Area, miles from its Napa home. As a ransom, the kidnapper is demanding that a local landmark — the moosehead-shaped growth on a Dry Creek Road eucalyptus tree — be restored...

PARIS – PARIS (AP) -- Masked French gendarmes detained a 17-year-old who took a class full of preschoolers hostage Monday, releasing all the children safely after hours of tense negotiations that drew nationwide attention. "The hostage-taking is over," Jean-Marc Magda, aide to the mayor of the eastern French city of Besancon, told The Associated Press by telephone. All 20 children who had been taken hostage and their teacher were released safely, he said. ... Besancon Mayor Jean-Louis Fousseret said the teen had been treated for depression but had not taken his medication in recent days. The mayor did not confirm...

THOSE desperate to decipher the baffling Obama presidency could do worse than consult an article titled “Understanding Stockholm Syndrome” in the online archive of The F.B.I. Law Enforcement Bulletin. It explains that hostage takers are most successful at winning a victim’s loyalty if they temper their brutality with a bogus show of kindness. Soon enough, the hostage will start concentrating on his captors’ “good side” and develop psychological characteristics to please them — “dependency; lack of initiative; and an inability to act, decide or think.” This dynamic was acted out — yet again — in President Obama’s latest and perhaps...

SEN. BOB MENENDEZ (D-NJ): "Do you allow yourself to be held hostage and get something done for the sake of getting something done, when in fact it might be perverse in its ultimate results? It’s almost like the question of do you negotiate with terrorists.”

DEVELOPING: Authorities are investigating reports of an armed student holding a classroom hostage at a high school in Wisconsin.

Taliban militants are holding the British woman kidnapped in Afghanistan and want to exchange her for a female Pakistani scientist jailed last week in America, it has been reported. A local Taliban commander named Mohammad Osman said he had kidnapped the woman and her Afghan colleagues in Kunar province on Sunday. He told an Afghan press agency with close ties to the Taliban that he was demanding an exchange for Aafia Siddiqui. Siddiqui, a 38-year-old neuroscientist, was jailed last week by a New York court for 86 years for the attempted murder of US agents and soldiers who were trying...

Baltimore police were swarming John Hopkins Hospital, where there were reports a person has been shot and that a man has taken a hostage on the eighth floor of one of the buildings, according to authorities and correspondence over the police radio.

In her farewell season premiere today, Oprah gave away hundreds of thousands of dollars in gifts and prizes to a mostly white woman audience that probably could easily do without. She also gave the audience of 300 a trip to Australia in a plane piloted by John Travolta. Maybe on the way she can stop in Iran to pick up its latest hostage. From ABC News: Price of Freedom for American Hiker in Iran: $500K Bail in CashI wonder if any of the screaming audience members would ever say, "Hey, Oprah. I'd like to donate my portion of the money...

A barricade situation involving a gunman who may have taken at least one person hostage has been reported at the Discovery Communications Building in Silver Spring, Md. Police have shut down several roads, including Georgia Avenue, around the building at One Discovery Place. All employees at One Discovery Place have been alerted to the incident and are seeking shelter or have been evacuated from the building. Hazmat teams, bomb squads and SWAT teams have been called to the building. Twitter user @wasroykosuge tweeted out the following: "A bunch of cops w guns and machine guns drawn surrounding the #discovery corporate...

A Botched Hostage Rescue in the Philippines is republished with permission of STRATFOR. On Aug. 23, Rolando Mendoza, a former senior police inspector with the Manila police department, boarded a tourist bus in downtown Manila and took control of the vehicle, holding the 25 occupants (tourists from Hong Kong and their Philippine guides) hostage. Mendoza, who was dressed in his police inspector’s uniform, was armed with an M16-type rifle and at least one handgun.A Botched Hostage Rescue in the Philippines is republished with permission of STRATFOR.

As overlord of the fixed-income finance market, PIMCO generates billions annually in effort-free profits. Now it wants to make things worse. Some raids on the US Treasury by America’s crony capitalists are so egregious as to provoke a rant -- even if you aren’t Rick Santelli. One such rant-worthy provocation is Pimco latest scheme to loot Uncle Sam’s depleted exchequer. According to Bill Gross, who heads what appears to be the firm’s squad of public policy front runners, the American economy can be saved only through “full nationalization” of the mortgage finance system and a massive “jubilee” of debt forgiveness...

SAN JUAN —Police reunited a teenage woman with her family Monday afternoon, nearly 19 hours after she was abducted, blindfolded and dumped in a Reynosa field. The 18-year-old woman, whose name was not disclosed by police, was walking to a friend’s house about 6:30 p.m. Sunday. A black van pulled up alongside her and three men hopped out, San Juan Police Chief Juan Gonzalez said. They snatched the girl, blindfolded her and took her to Reynosa. The kidnappers began calling the woman’s family demanding ransom money. “The kidnappers somehow missed it that she had a cell phone,” Gonzalez said. “We...

(UPDATE) MANILA, Philippines – A dismissed police official has taken hostage 25 passengers of a tourist bus, including some children, in Manila this morning, a radio report said. The report said Senior Inspector Rolando Mendoza, formerly with the Manila Police District-mobile division, was sacked from service for drug charges. Armed with an M-16 assault rifle, Mendoza boarded a Hong Tai tourist bus that was parked at the Luneta Grandstand in Manila. Mendoza allegedly demanded to be reinstated to his previous post with benefits, the report added. As of posting time, SWAT members have already surrounded the bus where Mendoza and...

Last week the president spoke out on behalf of the three American hikers who have been held in Iran for nearly a year. During that time, they have been able to make only one telephone call — to their families back in the U.S. — and write no letter at all. Sarah, Shane, and Josh are in Tehran’s infamous Evin prison, and Sarah is locked in solitary confinement save for once a day when she goes to the prison yard and sees the others. “I want to be perfectly clear,” the president said.  And then he lapsed into incoherence.  “Sarah,...

MEXICO CITY – Mexican Federal Police freed two kidnapped journalists held captive since last Monday in the northern part of the country by an organized crime group, officials said Saturday. The two were in a group of four journalists who were intercepted last Monday in the La Laguna region, which includes areas in the states of Coahuila and Durango in northern Mexico. One of them, Hector Gordoa of Televisa, was released Thursday in good health. In an operation based on intelligence work, the agents rescued the two journalists in the city of Gomez Palacio, Durango state, according to a communique...

WASHINGTON -- President Obama and congressional Republicans went to war yesterday over extending unemployment benefits for millions of out-of-work Americans. "It's time to stop holding workers laid off in this recession hostage to Washington politics," Obama said. "It's time to do what's right, not for the next election, but for the middle class." Obama's hot rhetoric in the Rose Garden sought to divert voters' anger over the sputtering economy to Senate Republicans, who don't want the government to borrow $34 billion for another extension of benefits. Republicans support extending jobless benefits only if the bill is paid for, which goes...

Note: Photo included. # SNIPPET: "Two French security advisers helping the Somali government have been kidnapped in the capital Mogadishu, French officials have said. Gunmen who were wearing police uniforms entered the hotel where the two were staying and took them away, eyewitnesses said. The abductions took place in a government-held part of Mogadishu. Islamist rebels are battling troops from the UN-backed interim government for control of the city." SNIPPET: "The French foreign ministry said the two advisers were in Mogadishu on an official mission to provide help to the government. They were seized at the Sahafi Hotel, which has...

Electrocution, gang rape, sodomy, starvation, pistol whipping, amputation and other atrocities are all daily occurrences for those who thought they had paid the full fee needed to get into America,.  This and more is all going on right next door to many unsuspecting citizens living in the suburbs.  When Barney Frank, Christopher Dodd, and other politicians decided to force banks into giving loans to people who could not afford them so they could purchase homes,  the housing was bound to eventually come tumbling down.  Well today, millions of foreclosed homes sit empty in suburbs all across America.  Most have...

Police say a car bomb has exploded outside a British Army barracks in Northern Ireland. The blast was behind Palace Barracks in Holywood, Belfast, at 12.24am and is described as "ongoing". Reporting from the scene, Sky's Ireland correspondent Vicky Hawthorne said: "Police are not confirming this but there are unconfirmed reports of some injuries on the ground.

http://www.vaughnward.com Note: The following text is a quote: http://www.vaughnward.com/vaughn-ward’s-statement-recent-video-pfc-bowe-bergdahl Vaughn Ward’s statement on the recent video of Pfc. Bowe Bergdahl Posted Fri, 04/09/2010 - 5:35pm “My thoughts and prayers go out to Pfc. Bowe Bergdahl and his family. As a Marine Corps Officer, we are taught to leave no man behind and this circumstance is no different. I support our military commanders on the ground in Afghanistan and know that we will continue to do everything we can to bring Pfc. Bergdahl home to Idaho. However, Walt Minnick recently made statements on this issue that can’t go unchallenged, suggesting the...

Note: The following text is a quote: March 26, 2010 Remaining 4 defendants plead guilty to hostage taking in Houston HOUSTON - The remaining four defendants in a six-defendant case pleaded guilty on Friday to hostage taking. U.S. Attorney José Angel Moreno, Southern District of Texas, announced the guilty pleas. The case was investigated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) with substantial assistance provided by the Houston Police Department (HPD). Israel Perez-Pinon, 26, Alejandro Pantoja-Rosales, 28, Edgar Ivan Guerrero, 20, and Juan Romero-Trejo, 36, all pleaded guilty March 26 before U.S. District Judge Vanessa Gilmore. They admitted to having...

CAIRO (AP) -- An al-Qaida offshoot in North Africa says it released a Spanish woman who spent 100 days as a hostage in Mauritania because she voluntarily converted to Islam. In a statement posted on militant Web sites Friday, al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb says Alicia Gamez adopted the Muslim name Aicha after being exposed to the teachings of Islam by her captors. She and two male colleagues still being held captive worked as volunteers for an aid group called Barcelona Accion Solidaria.

A UK man held hostage in Iraq for more than two-and-a-half years has revealed harrowing details of the torture meted out to him by his captors. In media interviews two months after his release, Peter Moore told how he was subject to mock executions and hung from a door by his arms as a punishment. The computer expert was released unharmed in December after 31 months in captivity during which all four of his bodyguards - abducted with him - are thought to have been killed. Moore, 36, told The Times newspaper how guards put a gun to his head...

N. Korea says it has detained four S. Koreans for illegal entry SEOUL, Feb. 26 (Yonhap) -- North Korea said Friday it has detained and is questioning four South Koreans for illegally entering the country. The official Korean Central News Agency neither identified the South Koreans nor say how they entered the communist country. The brief report, monitored in Seoul, only said the South Koreans were "recently detained" and are now under investigation. The crossing, if confirmed, would mark the first illegal entry by a foreigner into the North after Robert Park, a Korean-American missionary and human rights activist, walked...

Note: Photo included. SNIPPET: "An Iranian-backed Shia terror group that claims it seeks reconciliation with the Iraqi government has kidnapped a US civilian in Baghdad. The US recently released the top leader of the group under the guise of a reconciliation program, but the release actually was related to a hostage exchange. The Asaib al Haq, or the League of the Righteous, kidnapped Issa T. Salomi, a US civilian contractor, in Baghdad in late January. Salomi went missing in Baghdad sometime after Jan. 23, the US Department of Defense noted in a press release on Friday. The League of the...

MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Somali pirates freed a Greek-flagged tanker carrying 2 million barrels of oil on Monday, a day after the biggest ransom yet paid to them was dropped onto its deck, the pirates and a maritime official said. The Maran Centaurus was seized on November 29 with 16 Filipinos, nine Greeks, two Ukrainians and a Romanian on board. An aircraft dropped a ransom believed to be between $5.5 million and $7 million onto the vessel on Sunday, officials said. "We have agreed to solve our disagreements and release the ship. It is free and sailing away now," one of...

A man suspected of taking hostages in a post office in the US state of Virginia has been arrested after a stand-off lasting several hours, police say. Authorities in Wytheville persuaded Warren Taylor to give himself up and release three people he was holding. Mr Taylor was reported to have entered the post office pushing a wheelchair and claiming to be carrying explosives. He initially fired shots from the building but no-one was reported to have been injured.

Mauritania government has increased security for tourists in the country following the abductions last week of two Italian tourists near the border with Mali. Sergio Cicala and his wife Philomene Kabouree were kidnapped in an area of Mauritania where armed groups with links to Al-Qaeda are known to operate, diplomats said. There are suspicions the couple may have been smuggled into neighbouring Mali. "After these new kidnappings, it has been decided to adopt all necessary measures to ensure the personal security of foreigners in our country," the government said, quoted on Monday by pan-Arab daily al-Quds al-Arabi. It was the...

SNIPPET: "The US military targeted a Taliban commander in eastern Afghanistan who was behind the kidnapping of a Norwegian journalist in November. The Taliban commander, who is known as Haji Mohammad Dawran Safi or Qari Dawat, was the target of a November 26 airstrike in the eastern province of Kunar. Qari Dawat "is known for attacking innocent civilians in the Kunar region, as well as international forces and bases," the US military noted in a press release on Nov. 27, one day after the strike. Qari Dawat was not named, however. An Afghan Police commander confirmed the airstrike and said...

Note: The following text is a quote: Manhattan U.S. Attorney Announces Capture of Three Members of Colombian Terrorist Group Charged with Hostage-Taking of U.S. Citizen PREET BHARARA, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, JOHN V. GILLIES, the Special Agent-in-Charge of the Miami Division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation ("FBI") and MICHELE M. LEONHART, the Acting Administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration ("DEA"), announced today the arrest of EDILBERTO BERRIO ORTIZ, a/k/a "El Gavilan," ALEJANDRO PALACIOS RENGIFO, a/k/a "El Gato," a/k/a "Yimi," and ANDERSON CHAMAPURO DOGIRAMA, a/k/a "El Tigre," a/k/a "Dairon," three members of the...

JEFFERSON CITY - Portions of downtown Jefferson City are shut down due to a possible hostage situation in a government building. State employees in the building say police officers are outside patroling the area with assault rifles. The area is locked down. Follow KOMU online and on Twitter for updates. A viewer called KOMU to say a hostage situation took place in the Governor's Building on Madison Street. Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder is sending accounts from his Twitter account saying snipers are on the roof of the Jefferson Building and negotiators are on the scene to speak with a suspect...

Tremayne Durham still wants his money back. Three years ago Durham killed one man and held another hostage in an unsuccessful attempt to get back $18,000 he thought he was due. He is now serving a life sentence in the Oregon State Penitentiary, but he hasn't given up trying to collect. Today, he's using the courts instead of a .357 magnum -- and so far, he's having more success. Durham has filed suit in Multnomah County Circuit Court against Rob Chambers, whom he paid nearly $18,000 to build a soft-serve ice-cream truck in December 2005. Durham changed his mind a...

Bauer is a freelance journalist and photographer based in the Middle East who has reported from Iraq, Syria, Sudan's Darfur region and Yemen, according to his Web site. He grew up in Minnesota and graduated from the University of California-Berkeley with a degree in Peace and Conflict Studies, the site said.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - An American linguistics student traveling in northern Iraq didn't go on an ill-fated hiking trip because he had a cold—a twist of fate that prevented him from mistakenly wandering into Iran where his three friends were reportedly detained. The Swiss Embassy in Tehran was working Sunday to learn more about the Americans' fate through its contacts with the Iranian Foreign Ministry, spokeswoman Nadine Olivieri said. Switzerland represents U.S. interests in Iran. Shon Meckfessel sat out the hike because he had a cold, his grandmother, Irene Meckfessel, told The Associated Press from her home in Carmichael, Calif....